Terrier: Ruling keeps health care rolling

By: Daisy

If there is one thing that a Westie like me is good at doing, it is rolling on the ground. As soon as I see a nice, cool clover patch, like the ones on the North Cambridge bike path, I put my front shoulders on the green stuff, twist my body left and right, and get a nice, satisfying backrub. Ahhhhh!
Well, there was a lot of rolling done at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, today, after its justices upheld President Obama's health-care law and its "individual mandate" that Americans either purchase health insurance, or pay Uncle Sam a fine. And there are three "twists and turns" that would get a 10.0 score from yours truly.

Terrier: Pilgrim's lack of progress on nuclear energy

By: Daisy

This morning, I had a nice walk with my human friend Rich along the Alewife Brook in Cambridge and Somerville. Along the brook, I enjoyed sniffing the dirt and plants (including thistle that evoked my ancestral Scotland). In fact, I got so enthusiastic that a friendly woman passer-by in a New York Mets cap remarked that there must be "something interesting" in all that vegetation!
Well, these simple yet enjoyable experiences -- sniffing some soil, exploring a brook -- could be in jeopardy for my fellow canines and their human companions farther south in Massachusetts. It's all because of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth.
Pilgrim has presented a problem for Massachusetts since 1972 -- 40 years ago. (That is 30 years older than me, at least in human years. Don't ask what it is in dog years.) Well, that 40-year span was the length of Pilgrim's original license, which was set to expire today, June 8. It was re-licensed for 20 more years last month, and a courageous band of patriots is trying to make sure its corporate owner Entergy listens to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and runs things more responsibly.